It”s the “Who shot J.R.?” of the 21st century. For weeks now fans of “The Walking Dead” have tuned in to see if the fate of Glenn Rhee will be revealed. So far, no luck. But with each passing episode, the concern for his well-being (and by association that of his family) increases.
And where there are fans heavily invested in a character, there are people willing to play with our emotions for fun. Such is the case with a McFarlane action figure that has been making the rounds on Facebook. Places such as Power Point Ranger (with over 1100 shares as of this writing!) are perpetuating an image of an undead Glenn Rhee.
A quick reverse image search reveals there”s no corroboration from fan sites or official channels. If this is a future action figure, it”s REALLY far off the radar. Or…you know…it”s fake as a three dollar bill.
There are plenty of hallmarks that all it not as it seems. The low-quality of the image, the weird bubbling where it appears an accessory should be on the lower right corner, the poorly place accessory in the head-shaped hole in the upper right corner, the terribly blended red underneath the word “Glenn,” the use of the word zombie at all…the list goes on and on.
“Zombie” is a non-existing word in “The Walking Dead” universe and that extends to all the McFarlane merchandise. The undead are referred to as [DESCRIPTOR] walker. They never label Glenn as a “zombie.” So what gives? The photo is definitely of Glenn”s action figure. The real one. From Series 5.
If you compare the two, the fake version appears to be a Photoshopped “used” Glenn that is missing some key parts – the gun (replaced with a leg), the armor body armor, the non-bloodied head (replaced with an unknown object), the handgun, and the pipe. Whoever created the image used Glenn”s beat up face as their starting point and went from there. You can even make out where “With alternate head, pipe, gun and knife” has been scrubbed from the wording, “Glenn” copy/pasted over “Rhee” and “Zombie” added in a similar font.
So yeah, it”s fake. Nice try, Internet.
“The Walking Dead” airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.